Users consider dumping Microsoft

Furious customers are "seriously" considering a move away from Microsoft products over the company's new pricing policy.

They claim the policy could double their licence costs and, through trade body The Infrastructure Forum (Tif), have asked the UK government for help.

Tif represents 1,400 UK IT managers, many of whom are reluctant to be named as they fear financial reprisals from Microsoft. But the trade body said that a number were now "seriously looking at moving away from Microsoft".

However Tif chief executive David Roberts warned that migrating to competing products would involve "unacceptable" project costs. Others have called for a complete stop to new Microsoft projects, Tif added.

"If individual members were to talk about alternative strategies, it could cause them problems," Roberts explained.

It set up an Alternative Strategy Workshop to identify the technical implications of any migration and found several difficulties because Microsoft software is integral to many organisations.

"Taking out individual components would require a focused project team," Roberts said. "It would take up to five years and the costs would be unacceptable."

Gordon Buxton, senior developer at Oxford Computer Consultants, said: "If it takes that long to migrate, it is never going to happen."

He argued that few would be able to finance the development of a migration process that others can follow. Until then, network managers are "stuck" with the Microsoft monopoly in operating systems and workspace applications.

In the mean time, four US consumer groups have sent a letter to state and federal prosecutors calling for extensive business restrictions against Microsoft.

They claim that Windows XP, which started shipping last week, would cause "significant harm" to consumers, as the new bundle of software and internet services would extend the company's "illegal" monopoly.